GW student, cooking on a GWorld budget. "We all eat, and it would be a sad waste of opportunity to eat badly" ~ Anna Thomas

February 2, 2015

Deli DIY

At GW, the deli holds a special place in our hearts. Initially enticed by their legendary bacon, egg, and cheese bagel, most students eventually move on to develop their own unique order. After trying out many different options, I can assuredly say that my favorite personal creation (shared as a favorite by many other students, I’m sure) is an egg, cheddar and avocado bagel with Sriracha sauce. This is one epic bagel sandwich. Earlier this week, I made it all of the way to the front of the line when I realized that I had all of the ingredients I needed to make my favorite deli meal myself. So I turned around and left, sans bagel.

In my room, it proved simple to make a delicious, somewhat lighter version of this beloved bagel. I knew no bagel would compare to those special NY bagels served by my deli friends, so I settled on a piece of multigrain bread as a replacement. We have no toaster, so I crisped the bread in the oven broiler instead. While the bread was heating up, I quickly sliced half a Mexican avocado and fried up an egg. I placed a slice of Whole Foods cheddar on the bread for the final 30 seconds or so that it would melt, then removed the toast and piled on the avocado and egg. Topped with Sriracha, this homemade lunch definitely satisfied my deli craving.

Ingredient breakdown:

Avocado (Mexican, non-organic)

Cheddar cheese (Whole Foods brand, is sold in blocks)

1 slice of bread (Trader Joe’s multigrain)

1 egg, fried (Whole Foods brand, from Pennsylvania)

Sriracha sauce (peppers grown in CA, produced in CA)

Of these ingredients, only the cheese, bread, and Sriracha were processed somewhere in the U.S. The avocado and eggs are ‘raw’ ingredients, though they undoubtedly had been treated in some way for transportation and improved storage. These specific ingredients would be difficult to find for someone who did not have a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s on hand, but it would not be difficult to find any of these ingredients in most urban supermarkets. Sriracha specifically can occasionally be difficult to find but is usually sold at the deli (in case we needed another reason to love them).